You Can't Take It With You

Brian and I FINALLY got a little free time to watch a movie. This is an old one directed by Frank Coppolla, the same guy who directed one of my all-time favorite movies, It's a Wonderful Life. There are actually a lot of similarities between the two movies. Many of the same actors played in both. James Stewart (or as my Grandma's both called him - Jimmy Stewart) stars in both. The actor who played the bad guy in "It's a Wonderful Life" plays the good guy in this movie - really funny to see "Potter" with a heart!

Cowboys

We have a wood stove in the basement and next to it is our pretty small pile of wood. Sometimes the boys like to get into the pile and pull each piece to a clear spot on the floor and build a "house". When I see them begin this game, I cringe inside because it always creates a huge mess with little pieces of wood and bark and dust all over the floor. But they love doing it so I go along with it. Their "house" consists of the pieces of wood laid on the floor mostly and Jake will tell me the boundaries of each room and what each room is. The piece of wood you can see standing up is one side to the doorway (the piece for the other side of the doorway having recently fallen down). Jacob informed me that he was going to be a cowboy when he grew up and among other things which I can't remember right now, he said he would eat at Bandana's BBQ a lot. :-) Last time we were there he commented on the decor and wondered out loud if a lot of cowboys eat at Bandana's.
You can see Jacob is dressed like a cowboy complete with cowboy hat, boots and kerchief. After Jacob had gotten dressed up, Stan must have decided he needed boots and a hat too - next thing I knew Stan was coming downstairs with his own "cowboy" gear on! -- Rain boots and hat!!

Trying to be just like big brother....

but still a little finger sucking in between trips.

I don't think Providence would go for the little extras to that school uniform!

Hiking on Labor Day

We went hiking on Labor Day. We went to a trail in Weldon Springs and hiked 5.3 miles! Jacob did really well - not much complaining at all. Brian is the one who worked the hardest with Stanley's 35 pounds on his back the whole time. This was the prettiest spot on the hike. We hiked up to an overlook. That is the Missouri River you can see behind us. I was suprised at how many flowers were still blooming.

We found the neatest caterpillar. It was really big (for a caterpillar) and very vibrant light green. One of the most interesting things about it was its "feet". It had super suctiony "feet" that stuck really well to our shirts. It was like velcro when we would peel him off.

A picture of the guys. We were almost finished at this point.

One of the many butterflies we saw during our hike. We saw some yellow and black ones that were really really big.

Jacob's first day of school

Here he is - his first day. He wouldn't stand still for a second! He had talked about this day for weeks and looked forward to it with great anticipation.
His teacher had told me to drop him off like I would any other day so he would know what to expect for the second day, so I did. Then I went in to get some pictures. I dropped him off outside the gymnasium in the drop off line. The headmaster is always outside to greet us when we stop at the ramp. There is a long line of cars and we all wait till we are at the bottom of the ramp and then the kids get out and go up the ramp into the gym where they all sit in rows according to class. The headmaster then officially greets everyone and they begin the day with Scripture and prayer. Then each class is led to their classroom by their teacher. This is Jacob in the Kindergarten row.
Here he is getting up and ready to go for his first day!

School days

So my little boy is in kindergarten. I can hardly believe it. During the days when I walk past his room I still feel a little lonesome for him. I doubt the feeling is mutual and I'm glad. The first day he was just a little nervous about getting out of the van at the drop off point. He reached for me and I reminded him of what he was going to do and where he was going to go and then he got his confidence and was out of the van and up the ramp to his first day. Now when I drop him off, he jumps out of the van and literally runs up the ramp. In the rear view mirror I watch his little backpack bobble up and down on his back as he bounds into school.
He loves going to school. He loves recess and P.E. best. He loves playing with the other kids. He is learning a lot already. He knows 3 songs and the school verse. The songs are used to teach facts. One song taught the days of the week, another the items on a calendar and the last taught the 7 continents. He loves memorizing, and loves to sing the songs for us whenever we ask.

First day riding

Jacob learns to ride a two-wheeler

It's been almost a year since Jacob got a shiny new red 16" bike for his birthday. In that time, we've had a lot of lessons, but he has always been timid about it, even with training wheels, and never really caught on.
Lately, we'd taken a few walks around the neighborhood with a Skuut wooden balance bike (http://skuut.com/) and Jacob seemed to be getting more confidence and ability to balance. But he was getting too big for the little Skuut, so I tried taking the cranks off of his Quest to make it into a balance bike.
Rebekah's brother Dave had given me one of their old bikes - a little girls' 12" model - when I needed a handlebar for my shild stoker setup on the tandem. Anyway, I put the handlebar back on the bike and aired up the tires (and relaxed the chain tension a bit). I asked Jacob if he wanted to try - he was just a little timid starting off, but then he figured it all out. It's amazing! He's still a little shaky, but it's all finally come together for him. I think the smallness of the bike and its lower gearing made it a lot less intimidating and easier for him to pick up. As an avid cyclist, I'm very pleased and proud of him!